Banners blame cartel leader for missing Pelham grad

Friends of Harry Devert, the Pelham graduate who went missing in Mexico two months ago, are fearing the worst after a series of messages they received over the weekend blamed a cartel leader known as El Tigre for Devert's disappearance.

Jackie Burrell, a longtime family friend of Devert, and his mother, Ann, said banners hung on Friday throughout the coastal town of La Union by a group known as Pueblos Libres claimed El Tigre, Adrian Reyes Cardenas, was responsible for the death of an American citizen as well as the disappearance of a globetrotter. The globetrotter, Burrell said, is a clear reference to Devert.

"If this is Harry, we want his body," Burrell said. "We want to bring him home to rest in peace."

She said other messages conveyed through the Help Find Harry page on Facebook bolstered the claim made in the vigilante group's banners.

Burrell said all of the information has been relayed to the State Department and FBI and, through them, to Mexican authorities.

Ann Devert and several friends are in Mexico now, trying to figure out what happened to her son, Burrell said.

Devert, 32, had spent much of the last few years traveling the world. Last fall, he bought a motorcycle and set off on a trip that would have taken him across the United States and through Latin America. His goal was to arrive in Brazil in time for the World Cup.

On Jan. 25 he exchanged text messages with his girlfriend. He was in a village southwest of Mexico City, in an area known for its rough terrain and for the clashes between local vigilante groups and the cartels.

It is the last any of Devert's friends have heard from him.

"There's a million possibilities of what could have happened," Tina Ciccone, who grew up with Devert, said. "Do I think the cartel took him? I don't know. There's no sign of anything. We just want closure."

Burrell and Ciccone said on Sunday that the last two months have been emotionally exhausting, as one lead after another disintegrates.

Though little is certain about Devert's disappearance, Burrell said she believes he intended to meet up with the second of two military escorts after stopping in the village where he texted his girlfriend and refueled.

"The assumption is that the second escort was a fake escort," she said, adding that one of the messages that came in over the weekend said Devert had been shot. "He was in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said.

Burrell said while the latest news was grim, she and the rest of Devert's friends would continue to press authorities for information.

"Not getting answers is extremely painful," she said, "and sad."

Twitter: @NPRauch